Cheap CF Drive Link + How-to

Here are some pictures so maybe you can help me better.
Another problem I have is that in the picture you posted , the connection is a lot bigger than what the card reader takes.
I don't understand this. That power supply connection is way too big.
And if you could specify WHICH black wire to remove seeing as how there are two on each connection.
Do I keep the black wires right next to the red ones on each?
Also , I have tried this with various combinations and NONE of them have worked.
All I get is the screen saying "no floppy device".
I have the new os as you instructed , I have a 2000xl , of course , I have a compact flash with sounds on it.
And , of course , the new ribbon cable.
What am I doing wrong?
Please help.
When this is all done , I will post pictures so folks can see how to do it.
Also , in the picture of the card reader , is that jumper set the right way?
I have tried damn near everything.

Your pictures are a bit blurry but I see a standard floppy power plug comming off the MPC and I see a standard floppy power connector on the drive. The card reader drive has the same kind as is used by the floppy drive, so it should plug right in and the plug is notched so it can only go in one way. You should be able to leave all four wires right where they are - the 12 volt power will be ignored by the card reader. I don't really see the problem.

"I see a standard floppy power plug comming off the MPC and I see a standard floppy power connector on the drive. The card reader drive has the same kind as is used by the floppy drive, so it should plug right in and the plug is notched so it can only go in one way. You should be able to leave all four wires right where they are - the 12 volt power will be ignored by the card reader. I don't really see the problem."

Yes , they do have the same connector. I had a zip drive in there.
However , in the thread makers picture , he has a bigger power connector.
Man , this thing is driving me nuts.
It hooks right up and does nothing.
Hey scsi for , I tried this many ways as you can imagine.
I followed his instructions and left the "black" wire ( since he never specified which black one , I tried them all ) connected along with the red.
I went through almost all combinations and I also tried with them all connected as you suggested scsi 4 ...
NOTHING has worked.
If you have any ideas , please let me know.
I am getting frustrated after ordering this and trying it all night and most of today.

I see what you mean about being confused as to the power plug he has pictured but that is a molex plug and has no bearing on your card reader drive. Different card reader models use different power connectors - some have the small floppy type and some have the large HD-style molex type. Yours has a floppy type, so no power cable modification is needed in your case.

If you want to call me when you are in front of the MPC, I'll be glad to try to help you get the drive working.

Thanks a lot.
I would appreciate that and I will call you in ten minutes.
One thing though , he did say you need a molex plug.
Maybe he got it confused?

Please note that I wrote the following:

-If you use a different CF-ide-device you may have to modify the power cable, it's very easy, Snip the wires, then find a 4pin Molex Plug on a regular PC power supply and clip it off with about 4" of wire lenght, Slip 2 peices of heat shrink tubing over the RED/BLACk cut wires, Totally remove the YELLOW/BLACK wires. (We only need the 5v) Connect the RED to RED and BLACk to BLACK on the MPC Wire harness, Solder them, and then use a heatgun/lighter to activate the heatshrink to cover the Soldered connections.

emphasis on

IF YOU USE A DIFFERENT CF-IDE-DEVICE you MAY HAVE TO MODIFY THE POWER CABLE.

But if you purchased the one I specified, no modification is necessary. Don't worry though, if you did because the Addonics drive Comes with an Adapter/Splitter cable which gives you Either the large Molex type connector OR the Small Floppy type connector. (Just like mine, I modded mine because I was working on other projects with the MPC)






Also when you are hooking up the device make sure it is set to Master (Just make the jumper look like mine) Also make sure the Red line of your ribbon cable is facing away from the side of the power plug on the CF reader. (NORMALLY IT'S THE OPPOSITE ON ANY DRIVE BUT IN THIS CASE JUST MAKE SURE THAT RED PIN ONE IS ON PIN ONE OF THE PLUG) (Like in the picture)



Here is a picture of the screw holes I made, I marked them as i specified and I drew a straight line across to ensure that when I drilled the holes, the drive would be straight when I installed.



Also The limitations of the MPC make it picky with what size CF cards work, I use 1GB ones perfectly fine, I have not had any 2GB ones to experiment with, but if I boot it with a 4GB Kingston 133x CF card it makes the screen all garbled and locks up the MPC. Here is a picture of the one I use with ZERO ISSUES.



here is the device installed and put all back together:



It's pretty easy, you can do it! (Excuse the Sasquatch leg ew)

Thanks for responding..
I have done everything you just described and pictured but I am getting different results than you.
My MPC says " no floppy device".
I even had scsi for samplers on the line and we went through it.
I am going to try it again right now.

When you wrote this:

Here are some pictures so maybe you can help me better.
Another problem I have is that in the picture you posted , the connection is a lot bigger than what the card reader takes.
I don't understand this. That power supply connection is way too big.
And if you could specify WHICH black wire to remove seeing as how there are two on each connection.
Do I keep the black wires right next to the red ones on each?
Also , I have tried this with various combinations and NONE of them have worked.
All I get is the screen saying "no floppy device".

It kind of gives me the feeling that you hooked up the yellow (12v) to the CF Drive when you were trying to trouble shoot. If this is the case, you may have killed the drive. These are made to run on 3.3v and 5v of power, 12v could easily cook the device.

Try and install it in a computer to make sure you didn't murder it first, if you did, package it up nicely and RMA before it's too late!

Ok , as far as I can see , that is EXACTLY how I have mine hooked up and it's not working.
Here are some more pictures to help you see what I have done.

"It kind of gives me the feeling that you hooked up the yellow (12v) to the CF Drive when you were trying to trouble shoot. If this is the case, you may have killed the drive. These are made to run on 3.3v and 5v of power, 12v could easily cook the device."

The only thing I ever hooked the yellow wire up to while I was trouble shooting was the other yellow wire.
Could that have done it?
I never mixed up the colors.
Black to black , yellow to yellow etc.
I dont have a pc to connect this to.
All I have is my mac laptop.
I do have a g4 tower also but I don't know how to connect this to that.

How big is that flash card?

Also, Flip the IDE Cable around (Put the blue end on the motherboard)

Also see if you can find a 40 conductor cable and not an 80 conductor one. (Although this shouldn't matter, I have had this effect CDROM functionality in the past)

The flash card is 1 gig.
I did have the ide cable the other way.
I will turn it back around.
I have still have the original cable that was on the zip and it aint working with that connected either.

I put a different card in this morning.
A PNY technologies.
It worked!
The other card was by A data.
Funny thing is that I tried the PNY card yesterday numerous times and it would not work.
What a difference a day makes cause all I did was change the card and press power.
Just glad it's working and thanks a LOT man for the hook up on the link , the card and the pictures / help.
Now , assuming I have already purchased the necessary items to install a zip drive in my mpc 3000 , is there anything to stop me from putting this card reader in there?
If not , it looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas around this b!tch!

And for anyone like me who has BEEN waiting for card reader that won't cost as much as a new piece of gear , get this one.
I co-sign his move to make this thread a sticky as this is the only thread I have seen with a working link to a low priced reader that has been proven to work and has PICTURES from two different members to prove it.
Not putting anyone else down but this was hard for us late comers to get.
Just wanna spread the word.
Anyway , nuff talk , here's the proof.

Glad to hear you got it working! It must feel great after all that frustration.

No, you could not use that card reader in any other sampler but the MPC2000XL, because the XL is the only model that supports ATAPI/IDE drives. All other sampler models require SCSI drives.